Noel Neill
Encyclopedia
Noel Neill is an American
actress in motion pictures and television. She is best known as her portrayal of Lois Lane
in the film serials Superman
(1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman
(1950), and on the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman
.
; her father was a journalist, and her mother a dancer on the stage.
In her teens, Noel was a popular photographic model. While Betty Grable
's pin-up was #1 among GIs during World War II, Noel Neill ranked next. Noel also worked as a professional singer and dancer, signed up by Bing Crosby
.
Signing a contract with Paramount Pictures
led to appearances in many of the studio's feature films and short subjects. In the mid-1940s Noel had a leading role in one of Monogram Pictures
' wayward-youth melodramas, and she became a familiar face in Monogram features for the next several years, especially in the recurring role of Betty Rogers.
Noel appears in the last of the original Charlie Chan
movies, Sky Dragon
(1949), and also played damsels in distress in Monogram westerns and Republic Pictures
serials.
gave Noel Neill the recurring role of Betty in his series of "Teen Agers" musical comedies. When Katzman was casting his Superman
serial for Columbia Pictures
, he remembered Noel Neill's newshawk portrayals and signed her to play Lois Lane
. She played the role in the film serials Superman
(1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman
(1950), with Kirk Alyn
portraying Superman
/Clark Kent
.
When Adventures of Superman came to television in 1951, veteran movie actors George Reeves
and Phyllis Coates
took the leading roles for the first season. By the time the series found a sponsor and a network time slot, Coates had committed herself to another production, so the producers called on Noel Neill, who had played Lois Lane in the movies. She continued in the role for five seasons until the series went off the air in 1958.
While Phyllis Coates
generally distanced herself from the role, Noel Neill embraced her association with Lois Lane, giving frequent talks on college campuses during the 1970s, when interest in the series was revived, endearing herself to audiences with her warmth and humor.
Noel Neill has continued to appear in Superman related productions. She played Lois Lane's mother in a cameo for the 1978 film Superman, with Kirk Alyn
as Lois' father. In an episode of the TV series Superboy
she appeared alongside her former cast-mate Jack Larson
, who had played Jimmy Olsen
on TV. Her personal appearance at the Metropolis, Illinois
, Superman Festival was featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. As "Aunt Lois" she has a guest appearance in the independent superhero film Surge of Power: The Stuff of Heroes
, and she plays the role of Gertrude Vanderworth (the dying elderly wife of Lex Luthor
) in Superman Returns
(2006).
In 2003, an authorized biography of Neill was published. It was entitled Truth, Justice, & The American Way: The Life And Times Of Noel Neill, The Original Lois Lane by Larry Thomas Ward (Nicholas Lawrence Books, softcover, ISBN 0-9729466-0-8). A limited-edition, expanded version of the book was released in 2006.
Noel Neill and Jack Larson
donated their time to record commentaries for the DVD releases of the Superman TV episodes. Noel remarked on the documentary Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman
that a frequent question she would get from children at the time was, "Why don't you know that Clark Kent was Superman, just wearing a pair of those darn eyeglasses?" And Neill replied to the children (and later to college audiences), "I don't want to lose my job!"
On June 15, 2010, the southern Illinois city of Metropolis, Illinois (the city that calls itself the "official home of Superman") unveiled a statue of Lois Lane. The Lois Lane statue is modelled on Noel Neill. Neill stated that she was honored to be memorialized with the statue.
On July 23, 2010, Neill fell in her home in Tucson, Arizona
and broke her hip. She was hospitalized for surgery at Tucson Medical Center. "I'm honestly not sure Noel will be able to survive the after-effects of the surgery and the fall," Neill's friend and biographer, Larry Ward said. "At this point, all we can do is keep her comfortable and hope the pain subsides soon."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress in motion pictures and television. She is best known as her portrayal of Lois Lane
Lois Lane
Lois Lane is a fictional character, the primary love interest of Superman in the comic books of DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in Action Comics #1 ....
in the film serials Superman
Superman (serial)
Superman is a 15-part black-and-white Columbia film serial based on the comic book character Superman. It stars an uncredited Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill as Lois Lane. It is notable as the first live-action appearance of Superman on film and for the longevity of its distribution...
(1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman
Atom Man vs. Superman
Atom Man vs. Superman , Columbia's 43rd serial, finds Lex Luthor , secretly the Atom Man, blackmailing the city of Metropolis by threatening to destroy the entire community...
(1950), and on the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman
Adventures of Superman (TV series)
Adventures of Superman is an American television series based on comic book characters and concepts created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The show is the first television series to feature Superman and began filming in 1951 in California...
.
Early life and career
Neill was born in Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
; her father was a journalist, and her mother a dancer on the stage.
In her teens, Noel was a popular photographic model. While Betty Grable
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
's pin-up was #1 among GIs during World War II, Noel Neill ranked next. Noel also worked as a professional singer and dancer, signed up by Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
.
Signing a contract with Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
led to appearances in many of the studio's feature films and short subjects. In the mid-1940s Noel had a leading role in one of Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
' wayward-youth melodramas, and she became a familiar face in Monogram features for the next several years, especially in the recurring role of Betty Rogers.
Noel appears in the last of the original Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu...
movies, Sky Dragon
Sky Dragon
Sky Dragon is a 1949 mystery film, the sixth in which Roland Winters portrayed Charlie Chan. This film is the last Chan film in the series that originated in 1930 with Fox Film Corporation production of Charlie Chan Carries On, starring Warner Oland.-Synopsis:After passengers on an airplane...
(1949), and also played damsels in distress in Monogram westerns and Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
serials.
Superman
The film role of Betty Rogers, aggressive reporter for a high-school newspaper, led to the role of Lois Lane. In 1945 producer Sam KatzmanSam Katzman
Sam Katzman was an American film producer and director. Born into a poor Jewish family, Katzman went to work as a stage laborer at the age of 13 in the fledgling East Coast film industry...
gave Noel Neill the recurring role of Betty in his series of "Teen Agers" musical comedies. When Katzman was casting his Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
serial for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, he remembered Noel Neill's newshawk portrayals and signed her to play Lois Lane
Lois Lane
Lois Lane is a fictional character, the primary love interest of Superman in the comic books of DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in Action Comics #1 ....
. She played the role in the film serials Superman
Superman (serial)
Superman is a 15-part black-and-white Columbia film serial based on the comic book character Superman. It stars an uncredited Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill as Lois Lane. It is notable as the first live-action appearance of Superman on film and for the longevity of its distribution...
(1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman
Atom Man vs. Superman
Atom Man vs. Superman , Columbia's 43rd serial, finds Lex Luthor , secretly the Atom Man, blackmailing the city of Metropolis by threatening to destroy the entire community...
(1950), with Kirk Alyn
Kirk Alyn
-External links:...
portraying Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
/Clark Kent
Clark Kent
Clark Kent is a fictional character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Appearing regularly in stories published by DC Comics, he debuted in Action Comics #1 and serves as the civilian and secret identity of the superhero Superman....
.
When Adventures of Superman came to television in 1951, veteran movie actors George Reeves
George Reeves
George Reeves was an American actor best known for his role as Superman in the 1950s television program Adventures of Superman....
and Phyllis Coates
Phyllis Coates
Phyllis Coates is an American film and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of reporter Lois Lane in the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men, and during the first season of the Adventures of Superman television series.-Early life and career:After graduating from high...
took the leading roles for the first season. By the time the series found a sponsor and a network time slot, Coates had committed herself to another production, so the producers called on Noel Neill, who had played Lois Lane in the movies. She continued in the role for five seasons until the series went off the air in 1958.
While Phyllis Coates
Phyllis Coates
Phyllis Coates is an American film and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of reporter Lois Lane in the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men, and during the first season of the Adventures of Superman television series.-Early life and career:After graduating from high...
generally distanced herself from the role, Noel Neill embraced her association with Lois Lane, giving frequent talks on college campuses during the 1970s, when interest in the series was revived, endearing herself to audiences with her warmth and humor.
Noel Neill has continued to appear in Superman related productions. She played Lois Lane's mother in a cameo for the 1978 film Superman, with Kirk Alyn
Kirk Alyn
-External links:...
as Lois' father. In an episode of the TV series Superboy
Superboy (TV series)
Superboy is a half-hour live-action television series based on the fictional DC Comics comic book character Kal-El's early years as Superboy. The show ran from 1988–1992 in syndication...
she appeared alongside her former cast-mate Jack Larson
Jack Larson
Jack Edward Larson is an American actor, librettist, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of photographer/cub reporter Jimmy Olsen on the TV series Adventures of Superman.-Biography:...
, who had played Jimmy Olsen
Jimmy Olsen
Jimmy Olsen is a fictional character who appears mainly in DC Comics’ Superman stories. Olsen is a young photojournalist working for the Daily Planet. He is close friends with Lois Lane, Clark Kent/Superman and Perry White...
on TV. Her personal appearance at the Metropolis, Illinois
Metropolis, Illinois
Metropolis is a city located along the Ohio River in Massac County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,482...
, Superman Festival was featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. As "Aunt Lois" she has a guest appearance in the independent superhero film Surge of Power: The Stuff of Heroes
Surge of Power: The Stuff of Heroes
-Plot:The plot concerns corporate attorney and comic fan Gavin Lucas being caught in a laboratory explosion engineered by embittered scientist Hector Harris. Lucas develops the power to channel energy into powerful blasts, sense approaching people and detect energy flows nearby. He uses these...
, and she plays the role of Gertrude Vanderworth (the dying elderly wife of Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor is a fictional character, a supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and the archenemy of Superman, although given his high status as a supervillain, he has also come into conflict with Batman and other superheroes in the DC Universe. Created by Jerry Siegel and...
) in Superman Returns
Superman Returns
Superman Returns is a 2006 superhero film directed by Bryan Singer. It is the fifth and final installment in the original Superman film series and serves as a alternate sequel to Superman and Superman II by ignoring the events of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace .The film stars...
(2006).
In 2003, an authorized biography of Neill was published. It was entitled Truth, Justice, & The American Way: The Life And Times Of Noel Neill, The Original Lois Lane by Larry Thomas Ward (Nicholas Lawrence Books, softcover, ISBN 0-9729466-0-8). A limited-edition, expanded version of the book was released in 2006.
Noel Neill and Jack Larson
Jack Larson
Jack Edward Larson is an American actor, librettist, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of photographer/cub reporter Jimmy Olsen on the TV series Adventures of Superman.-Biography:...
donated their time to record commentaries for the DVD releases of the Superman TV episodes. Noel remarked on the documentary Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman
Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman
Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman is a documentary film from executive producers Bryan Singer and Kevin Burns which details the history of the Superman franchise, from comic book, to television, to the big screen...
that a frequent question she would get from children at the time was, "Why don't you know that Clark Kent was Superman, just wearing a pair of those darn eyeglasses?" And Neill replied to the children (and later to college audiences), "I don't want to lose my job!"
On June 15, 2010, the southern Illinois city of Metropolis, Illinois (the city that calls itself the "official home of Superman") unveiled a statue of Lois Lane. The Lois Lane statue is modelled on Noel Neill. Neill stated that she was honored to be memorialized with the statue.
On July 23, 2010, Neill fell in her home in Tucson, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
and broke her hip. She was hospitalized for surgery at Tucson Medical Center. "I'm honestly not sure Noel will be able to survive the after-effects of the surgery and the fall," Neill's friend and biographer, Larry Ward said. "At this point, all we can do is keep her comfortable and hope the pain subsides soon."